From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador Thea
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Thea Riofrancos Resource Radicals From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador Resource Radicals fl1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 24 25 25 26 26 27 27 28 28 29 29 30 30 31 31 32 32 33 33 34 34 35 35 36 36 37 Radical Américas 37 38 A series edited by Bruno Bosteels 38 39 and George Ciccariello- Maher 39 fl1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 24 25 25 26 26 27 Resource Radicals 27 28 28 29 29 From Petro- Nationalism 30 30 31 to Post- Extractivism 31 32 in Ec ua dor 32 33 33 34 Thea Riofrancos 34 35 35 36 36 37 Duke University Press 37 38 Durham and London 38 39 2020 39 © 2020 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper ∞ Designed by Drew Sisk Typeset in Portrait Text and Helvetica Neue by Westchester Publishing Services. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Riofrancos, Thea N., author. Title: Resource radicals : from petro-nationalism to post-extractivism in Ecuador / Thea Riofrancos. Other titles: Radical Américas. Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2020. | Series: Radical Américas | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2019046729 (print) lccn 2019046730 (ebook) isbn 9781478007968 (hardcover) isbn 9781478008484 (paperback) isbn 9781478012122 (ebook) Subjects: lcsh: Mineral industries—Political aspects—Ecuador. | Mineral industries—Government policy—Ecuador. | Economic development—Environmental aspects—Ecuador. | Natural resources—Political aspects—Ecuador. | Energy policy—Ecuador. | Environmental policy—Ecuador. Classification: lcc hd9506.e22 r56 2020 (print) | lcc hd9506.e22 (ebook) | ddc 333.809866—dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019046729 lc ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019046730 Cover art: Elisa Levy, El agua baila en la Wiphala, 2012. Courtesy of the artist. CONTENTS vii Acknowl edgments 1 Introduction: Resource Radicalisms 29 1 From Neoliberalismo to Extractivismo: The Dialectic of Governance and Critique 57 2 Extractivismo as Grand Narrative of Re sis tance 77 3 Consulta Previa: The Po liti cal Life of a Constitutional Right 115 4 The Demos in Dispute 138 5 Governing the Future: “Information,” Counter- Knowledge, and the Futuro Minero 164 Co nclusion: The Dilemmas of the Pink Tide 185 Notes 227 Bibliography 245 Index ACKNOWL EDGMENTS This book began before I knew it would be a book, before I knew I would be admitted into a PhD program, and before I knew I was conducting what would in hindsight constitute the preliminary fieldwork for my dissertation. It was born in late 2007 with a decision that was equal parts spontaneous and deliberate to move to Ec ua dor with Daniel Denvir, my partner and co-adventurer then and since. We were drawn by the country’s natu ral landscapes, rebellious uprisings, and by what we understood was the beginning of a momentous politi cal transformation: after de cades of social mobilization, the country’s first demo cratically elected leftist president had been inaugurated, and had promised a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution, an end to the long night of neoliberalism, and sovereignty from US hegemony. Over the three years prior to this decision, Daniel and I had been active in pcasc, a Portland- based Latin American solidarity organiza- tion, and had lived and traveled elsewhere in the region where the Left had already come to power. We knew that the Left’s electoral ascent was marked by both heady optimism and fraught relationships with the wide array of move- ments that had long strug led for social justice and popu lar power. We wanted to see how this process would unfold in Ecua dor. Right away, we learned that resource extraction and indigenous rights would form the intertwined sites of contestation between the leftist government and the social movements that were still, at that moment but not for much longer, its allies. I knew that these two issues had long been central to radical politics in the region, but had never before witnessed a Left so internally riven by disagreements over the model of development, the relationship between society and nature, and the territo- rial self- determination of indigenous nations and peoples. It was an immersive educational experience, and I found myself challenged by po liti cal questions I had never thought to pose. It was in this moment that this book was born. As is already apparent from this brief autobiographical narrative, I am in no sense the sole author of the pages that follow. My arguments and obser- vations were articulated in constant conversation with Daniel and with the many people we met and formed long relationships with in Ec ua dor. They drew on a prior set of analyses developed in my undergraduate thesis on social movements and economic policy in Bolivia, written under the guidance of my adviser Casiano Hacker- Cordón at Reed College. I am forever indebted to Casiano’s intellectual mentorship. He encouraged me to unsettle the bound- aries between academic subfields and disciplines, and between po liti cal com- mitments and scholarly research. His criticism—of my work and of the world— was always equal parts ruthless and generous; I aspire to emulate his example in my relationships with my own students. From before I even officially matriculated at the University of Pennsylva- nia, Tulia Falleti was a constant source of support, encouragement, and intel- lectual rigor. She was a model of a dissertation adviser: with the knowledge that an ethnographic study of conflict over mining in Ec ua dor represented a triply marginalized topic in the discipline (on methodological, substantive topic, and case se lection grounds), she si mul ta neously pushed me to articulate my ideas in terms intelligible to other scholars, believed that I could do it, and valued my work as a necessary challenge to hegemonic approaches in politi - cal science. She read and carefully commented on every chapter of my dis- sertation more than once. She also taught me how to structure my writing on a demanding but achievable timeline, and how to graciously receive critique while always giving me the space to push back against her own authority. And she inspired my interest in the fundamental territoriality of politics and in the myriad institutional arrangements for linking geographic scale and demo- cratic governance. The other members of my dissertation committee also went beyond the call of duty. Anne Norton helped me draw out the deeper questions at stake in my work: What is a community, and what practices and identities bind it together or tear it apart? What is the content of sovereignty? How do the seemingly neutral realms of the law and science become politicized? What are the complex subjectivities and temporalities at play in a fight against an ex- tractive sector still in its early stages? Who speaks for the land, the water, and the resources we hold in common? I still wrestle with these questions, and to the extent that this book sketches the outlines of how one might answer them, I am indebted to her. Robert Vitalis taught me to distrust just about everything already written on resource politics and the rentier state, to dispense with pre- packaged concepts, to listen to the actors on the ground, and to trace the his- tory that emerged from my encounters with people, events, and archives. He encouraged me to search out the fissures within the state and to pay close at- tention to the everyday practices of bureaucracy. And he always brought his expansive insight on oil politics in the Middle East to bear on my research in Ec ua dor, helping me specify both what was shared across contexts and what viii ACKNOWL EDGMENTS was unique to my fieldwork sites. From Erica Simmons, I learned both how to work against the grain of po liti cal science and still participate in and enrich the debates within the field. Her work on social movements and the politics of subsistence broadened my conceptual horizons: disputes over the manage- ment or owner ship of natu ral resources are always disputes over the meanings we ascribe to them, and the contested ways that po liti cal communities are built through and around extraction, production, and consumption. In addition to my committee, I want to note the support and intellectual influence of other members of the department, especially Jeffrey Green, Ian Lustick, Julia Lynch, Rudra Sil, and Rogers Smith. And lastly, outside po liti cal science, my fieldwork experience, dissertation, and book benefited immeasur- ably from the courses I took and the mentorship I received from Asif Agha, professor of linguistic anthropology and social theory polymath. It is not an overstatement to say that Asif taught me how language works, how— through the words we speak, write, and read—we reflexively constitute social life, link- ing, in webs of interaction, a casual conversation to the assembly of macro- political orders. My analy sis of extractivismo discourse is unthinkable without the lessons I learned in his seminars. Throughout gradu ate school, I participated in intellectual communities both on and off campus, and made what would be deep and lasting friend- ships. I survived intimidating seminars, impossible reading loads, comprehen- sive exams, dissertation proposals, and fieldwork with the companionship of Begüm Adalet, Osman Balkan, Laura Finch, Kathryn Hardy, Ian Hartshorn, Adam Leeds, Shy Oakes, and, from a distance, Isabel Gabel.